At the present time, the identity of an individual or user in a network environment, such as the Internet, is comprised of a large number of pieces of information, which is collected and recollected by a large number of entities. Some basic information regarding an individual, such as but not limited to name information, address information, identification information, financial information, profile information, and or preference information, is repeatedly collected and stored at a large number of system entities. Additional information, such as a user name and password, is created, as necessary, such that the individual or user can sign on and/or gain access to a service provider.
A large number of pieces of an individual's business and personal identity are therefore scattered across an increasing number of system entities, such as but not limited to commercial entities, banking and investment institutions, credit card companies, service providers, and/or educational institutions.
Individuals are therefore required to repeatedly enter much of the same information, in the process of numerous professional and/or personal endeavors. Furthermore, as the information for an individual changes, the stored information becomes increasingly impractical to manage and/or update. In addition, the numerous user names and passwords associated with an individual quickly becomes unwieldy, such that users often forget or lose track of the information they need to access services and/or accounts.
Several structures and methods have been described for identity and proxy-based networks, such as:    E. Gabber, P. Gibbons, Y. Matias, and A. Mayer, System and Method for Providing Anonymous Personalized Browsing by a Proxy System in a Network, U.S. Pat. No. 5,961,593, 05 Oct. 1999, describes a system “For use with a network having server sites capable of being browsed by users based on identifiers received into the server sites and personal to the users, alternative proxy systems for providing substitute identifiers to the server sites that allow the users to browse the server sites anonymously via the proxy system. A central proxy system includes computer-executable routines that process site-specific substitute identifiers constructed from data specific to the users, that transmits the substitute identifiers to the server sites, that retransmits browsing commands received from the users to the server sites, and that removes portions of the browsing commands that would identify the users to the server sites. The foregoing functionality is performed consistently by the central proxy system during subsequent visits to a given server site as the same site specific substitute identifiers are reused. Consistent use of the site specific substitute identifiers enables the server site to recognize a returning user and, possibly, provide personalized service”;    Proxy-Based Security Protocols in Networked Mobile Devices; M. Burnside, D. Clarke, T. Mills, S. Devadas, and R. Rivest; MIT Laboratory for Computer Science; event,declarke,mills,devada,rivest@mit.edu;    SPKI/SDSI http Server/Certificate Chain Discovery in SPKI/SDDI; D. Clarke; MIT Laboratory for Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, September 2001;    Grid Information Services for Distributed Resource Sharing; K. Czajkowski, S. Fitzgerald, I. Foster, C. Kesselman; Proc. 10th IEEE Symposium on High-Performance Distributed Computing, 2001;    Certificate Discovery Using SPKI/SDSI 2.0 Certificates; J. Elien; MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; May 1998; and    Local Names in SPKI/SDSI; N. Li; NYU Department of Computer Science; Proceedings of the 13th IEEE Computer Security Foundations Workshop.
Other systems provide various details of the operation of network identity and proxy systems, such as U.S. Pat. No. 6,460,036, System and Method for Providing Customized Electronic Newspapers and Target Advertisements; U.S. Pat. No. 6,029,195, System for Customized Electronic Identification of Desirable Objects; U.S. Pat. No. 5,835,087, System for Generation of Object Profiles for a System for Customized Electronic Identification of Desirable Objects; U.S. Pat. No. 5,754,939, System for Generation of User Profiles for a System for Customized Electronic Identification of Desirable Objects; U.S. Pat. No. 5,754,938, Pseudonymous Server for System for Customized Electronic Identification of Desirable Objects; U.S. Pat. No. 6,490,620, Integrated Proxy Interface for Web Based Alarm Management Tools; U.S. Pat. No. 6,480,885, Dynamically Matching Users for Group Communications Based on a Threshold Degree of Matching of Sender and Recipient Predetermined Acceptance Criteria; U.S. Pat. No. 6,473,407, Integrated Proxy Interface for Web Based Alarm management Tools; U.S. Pat. No. 6,421,733, System for Dynamically Transcoding Data Transmitted Between Computers; U.S. Pat. No. 6,385,652, Customer Access Solutions Architecture; U.S. Pat. No. 6,373,817, Chase Me System; U.S. Pat. No. 6,338,064, Method for Enabling a Web Server Running a “Closed” Native Operating System to Impersonate a User of a Web Client to Obtain a Protected File; U.S. Pat. No. 6,259,782, One-Number Communications System and Service Integrating Wireline/Wireless Telephone Communications Systems; U.S. Pat. No. 5,974,566, Method and Apparatus for Providing Persistent Fault-Tolerant Proxy Login to a Web-Based Distributed File Service; European Pat. No. EP 1094404, Collaborator Discovery Method and System; European Pat. No. EP 1031206, Identity Discovery method for Detecting Authorized Security Service Which is Illicitly Transferring Decoding Capabilities for use in Unauthorized Security Devices; The Session Initiation Protocol: Internet-Centric Signaling; H. Schulzrinne, J. Rosenberg; IEEE Communications Magazine; October 2000; How Bluetooth Embeds in the Environment; Lawday, G.; Electronic Product Design; November 2001; and Business: Designing with Users in Internet Time; J. Braiterman, S. Verhage, and R. Choo; Interactions: September-October 2000.
It would be advantageous to provide an identity based service system, which does not require a user to create a user identity for each participant. The development of such an identity based service system would constitute a major technological advance.
Furthermore, it would be advantageous to provide an identity based service system, which allows a user to create an identity that can be controllably accessed and shared by a plurality of participants. The development of such an identity based service system would constitute a further technological advance.
As well, it would be advantageous that such an identity based service system be integrated with existing site authentication and authorization structures, such that the identity based service system is readily used by a wide variety of sites. The development of such an identity based service system would constitute a further major technological advance.